“When I was born my mom lost a lot of blood, so without people’s donation she would’ve died; she lost pulse for five minutes and (donated blood) saved my mom so I’m just giving back,” said Engineer major Sergio Rodriguez on why he was personally giving blood.

The Blood Source Organization hosted a blood drive in the staff parking lot adjacent to the roundabout on Tuesday and Wednesday and invited students and faculty across campus to go out and donate anytime between 12-4p.m.

Engineer major, Sergio Rodriguez, reason for donating stemmed from almost losing his mother when she was giving birth to him.

Rodriguez has donated blood for since his freshman year at Del Campo High School, donating to American River College’s blood drive for over three years.

“I have donated blood four times at ARC,” said Rodriguez.

The average time to go through the process of donation – applying, waiting in line, and donating – takes about 45 minutes according to a volunteer working the event, however the Blood Source Organization website says it takes five to 10 minutes to actually donate.

The amount of blood that is donated to Blood Source by students is approximately a pint which, according to the Blood Source webpage, can save three lives.

In order to have given blood on campus, students were required to sign a pre-registration giving their personal contact information.

A handout, known as the donor education sheet, is then given to the donor by a volunteer to use as a guide to understand the donation process.

A handout on the pre-donation information that included topics such as iron deficiency and ways to maintain iron balance was also passed out.

Iron is an important component inside the protein molecule, hemoglobin, which allows red blood cells to carry oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues and return carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs. If the body does not have enough iron the body cannot make a sufficient amount of healthy, red blood cells.

Potential donors ran the risk of being turned away for their personal safety if their iron levels were too low.

History major, Nicole Nichols, was worried that iron in her blood was not sufficient enough to donate.

“I was worried that my iron was 12 points below,” said Nichols.

Another participant that donated blood was math major, Josh Thayer.

Thayer had donated blood before at his high school, Mira Loma, this was his first experience with donating on campus.